Tale Of Murder Deepens High Seas Mystery

Crew Of The "Joe Cool" Remains Missing; Passengers Face Federal Charges

(CBS/AP)  A trip that began as a routine charter boat jaunt to the Bahamas turned horribly wrong somewhere on the high seas, with four crew members still missing and two men who hired the vessel - one a fugitive robbery suspect - in custody facing federal charges.

Kirby Logan Archer, 35, and Guillermo Zarabozo, 19, appeared in federal court Wednesday, but neither has been charged in connection with the missing people as the FBI keeps investigating. Meanwhile, Coast Guard ships and aircraft searched hundreds of miles of open ocean in heavy rain for the crew.

Zarabozo told the Coast Guard a pair of hijackers shot the captain and his wife, then shot the two crew members when they refused to throw the bodies overboard, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella. Later he changed his story, telling the FBI he had never been onboard the Joe Cool.

Zarabozo said the captain's wife was shot "because she was hysterical," the Miami Herald reported.

Zarabozo said the hijackers then turned to him, demanding he toss the bodies of the four dead overboard into the Atlantic Ocean or suffer the same fate.

According to the criminal complaint, Zarabozo was asked on Tuesday to identify the vessel where he supposedly witnessed the alleged hijackers carry out the execution-style shootings. He then told investigators he did not recognize the boat and had never been aboard it.

Investigators soon found Zarabozo's Florida ID on the boat, along with marijuana, a key for handcuffs and blood on the boat's stern, reports Cobiella.

Adding to the intrigue: Archer, of Strawberry, Ark., is wanted in his home state for allegedly stealing more than $92,000 in January from a Wal-Mart where he was an assistant manager. He also has a checkered military past: he went AWOL from the Army four years ago.

The search includes a C-130 aircraft and helicopters. It was expanded as far north as Cape Canaveral on Wednesday to account for possible drift caused by the Gulf Stream current. Coast Guard searchers also checked out on foot some of the dozens of small uninhabited cays that dot the Bahamas to the east of Miami.

"The weather is very, very nasty," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Dana Warr. "It makes searching very difficult, both in the air and the sea."

The FBI was trying to determine how Archer and Zarabozo wound up in a life raft, with the 47-foot fishing charter boat "Joe Cool" adrift about 12 miles away - and no sign of the boat's crew.

"All I can say at this point is that the investigation is continuing," said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.

Still missing are the boat's captain, Jake Branam, 27; his wife Kelley Branam, 30; his half brother, Scott Campbell, 30; and Samuel Kairy, 27, all of Miami Beach.

As of Wednesday, Archer was charged with fleeing prosecution in Arkansas. Zarabozo was charged with lying to federal agents.

The vessel was found "in disarray," according to the affidavit. Archer, the affidavit said, admitted that he was a fugitive and knew that he could not travel by air.

Both men were being held without bail at a federal detention center in Miami. A bail hearing was set for Friday, with prosecutors asking that both be kept in detention.

At their court appearances, Archer and Zarabozo were both told they would get court-appointed lawyers. When asked if he had any assets to pay for a lawyer, Archer said all he had was $2,200 that investigators confiscated after his arrest.

Several of Zarabozo's relatives attended the hearing, including his father also named Guillermo Zarabozo, but they declined to talk to reporters.

Archer and Zarabozo paid $4,000 cash in $100 bills to charter the "Joe Cool" on Saturday to Bimini, Bahamas, where they told the boat's operators they had female companions waiting for them. The Coast Guard says that GPS navigation devices on the boat show that it veered sharply south toward Cuba about halfway into the 50-mile trip.

Archer, a former Army military police investigator, had been stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the 1990s, according to court records. He went AWOL in 2003 and received a "less-than-honorable discharge" as a result, according to Arkansas records from his 2005 divorce.

Less is known about Zarabozo, other than he is a migrant from Cuba and lives with relatives in Hialeah. Archer's ex-wife, Michelle Rowe, has told several media outlets that her husband met Zarabozo as a boy in Cuba and may have helped him and his family reach the U.S.

An attorney for Rowe, Chaney Taylor of Batesville, Ark., said Rowe has had no recent contact with Archer. Rowe has custody of the couple's two young sons, Taylor said.

"We don't know where he's been since January," Taylor said of Archer.

In the court documents, Rowe contended that her husband admitted to her that he was gay and had affairs with five or six men. Archer, however, denied he was gay and said one man mentioned by his ex-wife was merely a roommate and not a lover.

Court records also show that Archer has since remarried, to another woman named Michelle. In court on Wednesday, Archer said he is now separated.

[gmond]

Blame it on Walmart for hiring this guy in the first place.

[mrassekh]

Wow. D a r n is a bad word??

[mrassekh]

Word to the wise: If you''re going to hijack a boat and kill the crew in the middle of the ocean, make sure you can sail the *** thing!

[sal567]

Obviously these two jokers didn''t have a well thought out plan. They probably planned to hijack the boat to go to Cuba to live with the money stolen from Wal Mart, but they didn''t expect the resistance and panic of the boat''s crew so their hijack turned to homicide and now they will be honeymooning in jail instead. lol

[stephengosson]

Archer is already toast, but Zarabozo''s whopper takes the cake!
Hijackers comandeer the boat, apparently just to kill a few strangers, then depart without taking the boat.
Zarabozo was forced to throw four bodies overboard, equaling the number of missing people from "Joe Cool".
BUT, Zarabozo now insists that the four bodies he jettisoned were not from that particular boat.
On top of that, his I.D. was found on the "Joe Cool".
WOW.
I know that the fed''s try to keep an arms-length from falsely incriminating people but, gimmee a break!
The charge against Zarabozo of lying to federal agents is, to say the least, an understatement!

[bobflanders]

The "hijackers" made them get In the life raft.

[nolalou]

BobFlanders,

Sounds just about right. you''ve got my vote for D.A.! The real story might even be stranger than that!

[waterandsand]

hey bob,, why would you get into a little life raft when you have a perfectly fine boat just floating there?

[bobflanders]

It is obvious that these two guys aren''t that smart they are most likely lovers or something so Archer robs wal-mart for $92,000 but where can they live out their days with that small amount of money, Mexico? No! Cuba? sure the average income in Cuba a month is only $10.00 and they are both familiar with the country and know people there so off they go to Miami to hijack a charter boat to Cuba. When the crew refuses to take them there Archer not willing to do time for the robbery shoots one of the crew (maybe by accident while stoned) then panics because now he has three witnesses to the murder shoots the whole crew and throws them over board and then heads up to the wheel house to head onward to Cuba but oh yeah he has no clue how to drive a charter boat so after hours of thinking the end plan is to just get into the life raft and hope someone finds them and then tell the rescuers a heroing tale of hijackers that were nice enough to let them live but yet the shot the whole crew. The end. Case closed

[bobflanders]

It is obvious that these two guys aren''t that smart they are most likely lovers or something so Archer robs wal-mart for $92,000 but where can they live out their days with that small amount of money, Mexico? No! Cuba? sure the average income in Cuba a month is only $10.00 and they are both familiar with the country and know people there so off they go to Miami to hijack a charter boat to Cuba. When the crew refuses to take them there Archer not willing to do time for the robbery shoots one of the crew (maybe by accident while stoned) then panics because now he has three witnesses to the murder shoots the whole crew and throws them over board and then heads up to the wheel house to head onward to Cuba but oh yeah he has no clue how to drive a charter boat so after hours of thinking the end plan is to just get into the life raft and hope someone finds them and then tell the rescuers a heroing tale of hijackers that were nice enough to let them live but yet the shot the whole crew. The end. Case closed

[jetlizhan]

these two are so-o-o-o-o guilty. what a horror those 4 victims must have gone through before they died.

[kantsleep]

Eventually these guys are going to break down or if the Prosecutor doesn''t screw up and start offering immunity deals one will turn against the other. Another thought, Sodium Pentathol and a big rubber hose. I guarantee someone will start talking.

[waterandsand]

yea but why would you jump in a life raft when the boat hasnt sunk? Something seems really wierd with this story. Im sure they did it but wouldnt you sink the boat if you were gonna jump in the life raft? Or at least clean up the mess in it,, maybe there really stupid but to me if im sitting in a life boat with my partner i think id come up with a story.

[downtowner97]

Our criminal justice system works by determining who is the best liar. Lie well, and you go free. Our military tortures people to try to get them to tell the truth. They get bad information at best.

It''s 2007. Isn''t there a reliable way to get people to tell the truth or to know when they are or aren''t telling the truth? The 5th amendment keeps people from testifying against themselves, but has been rendered quaint by the millions of urine and blood samples collected from America''s working class to look for drugs.

Why do we spend so much money listening to liars?

[nolalou]

It seems fairly obvious the 2 arrested passengers had something to do with this. I don''t believe their hijacker story for one second. I''m not sure what the motive was exactly, if it was to steal the boat, why was it abandoned, and they were found on a life raft 12 miles away? The only thing I can think of is either the boat broke down, or neither of these idiots knew how to operate it!

[mainemade]

Somethings "fishy" with this one!
Why would anyone "hijack" a boat, kill 4 people, let 2 people get away, and NOT "hijack" the freakin BOAT?!

[nlm2383]

They did it...